Mechanism for interleaving paper.



H. P. BROWN & C. L. JOHNSTON.

MECHANISM FOR INTERLEAVlNG PAPER. I

* Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHED I.

API LICATION FILED D EC. I4. 1914.

' 24 WITNESSES: g'VENTORS,

@ae My);

H. P. BROWN & C. JOHNSTON. MECHANISM FOR INTERLEAVING PAPER APPLICATION FILED DECLM, I914.

' Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

' H. P. BRDWN & C. L. JOHNSTON.

' MECHANISM FOR INTERLEAVING PAPER.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 14. 19M.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES: v INVENTORS.

UNITED ISTATES'PATENT. OFFICE.

HORACE P. BROWN AND CLARENCE L. JOHNSTON, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

MECHANISM FOR INTEBLEAVING PAPER.

To all whomz't may concern:

Be it known that we, HORACE P. BROWN and CLARENCE L. JOHNSTON, both citizens of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mechanism for Interleaving Paper, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a machine for cutting, folding and interleaving, or interfolding sheets, and particularly to a machine for double folding paper towels. The apparatus is of the general type of machines disclosed by our copending application filed Dec. 15, 1913, Serial No. 806,732.

This invention has for its object to provide a machine by which sheets, as paper towels, may be made from continuous rolls of web stock; and particularly to fold each towel four-ply and thereby produce a rel- .atively narrow package for the. conservation of storage space and enabling the use of a dispenser of comparatively small thickness; the double-folded sheet having the advantage also of not bein so liable to tear at the edge when graspe by the wet hands and drawn from the container or dispensing device.

The invention consists of the parts and the combination and construction of parts as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which t Figure 1 is a perspective view of one of the folded sheets with its leaves slightly separated.

Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically a stack of sheets as produced by the machine.

Fig. 3 is a vertical-section and diagrammatic view showing'the mechanism in on position.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of the doublefold mechanism.

. In Fig. 1 there is shown a towel or sheet A such as produced by the present machine,

each sheet comprising, when folded, a marginal two-ply flap or selvage a whose. edge ais folded at the transverse median line of the sheet A, and folds at a at the edge of leaves aP-at These are folded along the opposite edge 11 to form end leaves a a The leaves a -a a and a therefore form a four-ply towel which is approximately but one-quarter of the length of the sheet A. p

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

Application filed December 14, 1914. Serial No. 877,092.

series of towels A are superposed with their marginal flaps aabove each other'and interfolded with towels A are similar towels B folded just opposite and with their their marginal flaps superposed. Thus the flaps ab are disposed in zig-zag relation and occupy positions in the crotch or apex of the folds a Zi v A stack of towels thus interfolded is generally dispensed from a container, not shown, whereby the lowermost margin. leaf as (LL-a of each towel is exposed as the towels are withdrawn. As these paper towels are of considerable size they will occupy less width of space if folded four-ply.

Hence the invention of the present machlne.

2 indicates a suitable frame upon which the several parts are =appropriately mounted. 3-3 are upper cylinders to each of which a web is fed from stock rolls not shown. 44.- are lower, similar cylinders to each of which aweb is also fed. These four cylinders carry diametrically opposite cutters 55, the cylinders 44 being broken away and not showing their cutters in toto.

The cutters of the upper cylinders 3'3 cotiperate with respective intermediate cylinders 66 to sever the web into sections of desired length; the cutting operation occuring at the coincidence of the cutters '5' with their respective cylinders 6. As shown, the sections of web are about onehalf the length of the circumference of the A cutter cylinders "36, though this may be as desired, The lower cutter-cylinders 4 coact with respective intermediate cylinders 77.,

The cylinders 34 will be called cutter cylinders, and the cylinders 6-7 will be called tucker cylinders, for they are provided with diametrically opposite transverse tucker blades 8 set at 90 from the cutting lines of their cylinders, and therefore each occupies a 'position centrally of a cut section of web on its cylinder.

Also, each cylinder 6-7 has rocker shafts.

9 carrying and actuating pick-up pins 10 projectable beyond the cylinder surface to engage the leading ends of the infeeding webs, just as they are severed by the several cutters 5 when coacting with the adjacent tucker cylinders. The function of the pick-up pins is to carry the leading end: of the web from cylinders 34. to 6 -7 as'the ans . folded towel.

case may be, and to hold onto the cut section until the tucker blades 8 act. The blades 8 of the set of tucker cylinders 6-7 at the right, Fig. 3 coacts with a folding drum 11 while the similar cylinders 6-7 at the left coact with a folding drum 12. These drums 11-12 are cooperable at their adjacent parallel sides.

The several cylinders and drums are each provided with driving shafts 13 geared together at a ratio of one to one to produce uniform speed of travel throughout the equi-diameter cylinders and drums.

Between the right-hand cylinders 36 is being led in a lead end of a web, while between the left-hand cylinders 36 a web has just been cut and a section B of paper has been tucked by the lower blade 8 into a tucker jaw 15 on a rocker shaft 16 of which there go four set at 90 on each folding drum For each half revolution of a drum 11 or 12 a tucker 8 of cylinder 6 will tuck centrally an overlying section of paper into its coinciding jaw 15 (position m Fig. 3). And

at the same time a sheet from cylinder 7 will be tucked in at the adjacent jaw 15 (position at). The tucked sheets on drum 12 will automatically fold on the surface of the drum as it revolves in the direction indicated by the arrow thereon. Thus as a drum 11 or 12 revolves each alternate jaw 15 will receive a towel from'upper and lower respective tucker cylinders 6 -7. From position m in one-quarter revolution of a drum 11 or 12, the towel will assume position 0.

Projecting from each folding drum 1112 and spaced behind the tucker jaws 15 are equidistant blades 17 here termed folders. These folders are adapted to meet co- Operative means spaced around the drums at about 45 from the tucker jaws thereon.

These means include oscillating grippers 18 secured on rocker shafts 19 in the drums 1112, and when a folding blade 17 of one drum registers with a gripper of the oppo site drum, the gripper closes down firmly upon the intruded fold of paper over the adjacent blade, thus completing the fold. The closed gripper at position 12 carries the edge of the towel down as" the drum rotates and the respective rocker shaft 19 is then actuated to release the paper at about 45 from the position p. -A gripper 18 of drum 12 is shown at g as just releasing a double- The particular function of this machine is to quadruplicately fold each towel in alternate zig-zag order. For this purpose the drums 11-12 are relatively set so that the tucker jaws of each are 45 in advance of those on the other.

Since a doubly-folded towel in a tucker jaw, position 0, lies over one-quarter of its jaw 15 (position 1') on the opposite drum, as 11, at 45 farther back. Therefore; the folder blade 17 (at 1") will press its overlying 2-ply sheet upon the 2-ply sheet' at 0 and press all four plies into the comple mentary and opposite gripper means as they approach the diainetral planeof the drums As clearly shownin Fig. 4, the marginal flap a is produced by a folder17- spaced back from its leading tucker jaw 15. The.

of the sheets after the quadruple fold is made from one drum to the other. This transfer is best shown in Fig. 1 and comprises sets of pins 20 connected to oscillators 21 whereby the pins are projected beyond their respective drum 11 or 12 to pierce the four layers of paper on the other. drum at the folding position. As the drums revolve the pins withdraw fromthe opposite drum and act to carry the outer loose leaf ends down into the pile-in close relation to the adjacent marginal flap a of the following towel, shown at 9, Fig. 3. This transfer of the fly ends tends to permit of. great acceleration of speed because it positively acts upon them to assist the discharge from the machine as the tendency of the paper to cling to the drum surface is overcome and their folding is not dependent upon the action of gravity. v

It is understood that the several rocker. shafts and oscillators are actuated in proper time and manner and that any suitable or well known means .may be adapted for their operation, such as cams, etc.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. Mechanism for folding and arranging sheets, comprising means for double-folding of one sheet arranged in the angle of"the second fold of another sheet.

2. Mechanism for folding andarran g sheets, comprising means for doubleolding each sheet, and means for folding eacli folded sheet, with the initially folded edge of one sheet arranged inthe angle of the second fold of another sheet, said last-named means forming a marginal flap on one sheet.

3. Mechanism for interfolding. multifolded sheets to form a continuous package, comprising means for initially foldlng the sheets, and means acting subsequently to simultaneously fold and interfold the folded sheets in zigzag order with a portion of each sheet interfolded with a portion of each adjacent sheet.

4. Mechanism for interfolding multifolded sheets in zigzag order, comprising means for doubling the sheets, and means.

acting subsequently to' simultaneously fold and interfold the doubled sheets with a portion of each sheet interfolded with a portion of each adjacent sheet.

5. Mechanism for quadruplicately interfolding folded sheets, comprising means for folding the sheets along one diameter and for placing said folded sheets in overlapped relation, and means acting subsequently to fold and inter-fold folded and overlapped sheets in zigzag order.

6. Mechanism for quadruplicately interfolding folded sheets, comprising means for folding the sheets along one diameter and for placing said folded sheets in overlapped relation, and means acting subsequently to fold said folded and overlapped sheets approximately in half to form a continuous package of interfolded sheets.

. fold'the doubled sheets into double plies of unequal length with a double ply of one sheet interfolded with a double ply of another sheet. I

9. Mechanism for quadruplicately folding and interfolding sheets, comprising means for separately doubling the sheets on substantially the central line thereof and for placing said doubled sheets in;, overlapped relations, and means acting subsequently to fold the doubled sheet into double plies of unequal length with a double ply of one sheet interfolded with a double ply of another sheet.

10. Mechanism for quadruplicately folding and interfolding sheets, comprising means for doubling each sheet and for placing said doubled sheets in overlapped relation, means for folding the doubled sheet into double plies of unequal length, with a double ply of one sheet interfolded with a double ply of another sheet, and means for producing a marginal fold on the longer of said double plies.

11. Mechanism for quadruplicately interfolding folded sheets, comprising means for doubling the sheets, meansfor bringing said doubled sheetstogether with substantially one-half of one sheet overlapping an equal amount of another sheet, and means acting subsequently to fold the doubled sheets.

12. Mechanism for interfolding quadruplicately folded sheets, comprising means for doubling the sheets, means for bringing said doubled sheets together with slightly more thanone-half of one sheet overlapping an equal amount of the other sheet,-the lead ing end of one of the sheets projecting across the line of second fold of the other of said sheets, and means acting subsequently to fold the doubled overlapped sheets, said means forming a marginal fold on said leading end.

13. A machine for interfolding papers, comprising means for simultaneously producing a plurality of doubled sheets, means for bringing said doubled sheets together with substantially one-half ofone sheet over lapping an equal amount. of another sheet, and means producing a common fold in said doubled sheets to interfold the same.

HORACE P. BROWN. CLARENCE L. JOHNSTON.

Witnesses:

J. M. BUTLER,

CHAS. S. DIXON. 

